Why are human beings so contrary and strange?

Unusual tanning

The Crazy things we do

We humans are a weird bunch we do the strangest things. I recall the statement “ why do you bang your head against the wall?” Answer “Because it feels so good when I stop!”

This illustrates my by point in a rather blunt manner. However, let me give you a few examples of our human condition.

Nature

We take a beautiful piece of nature in the countryside, we build roads and housing estates in this beautiful country side until there are thousands of houses and no view visible. We then go on holiday to visit nature and see the beautiful countryside and we say “wouldn’t it be wonderful to build a cottage out here in the countryide”.Go figure.

Our Homes

We build our little ticky tacky houses and have a piece of land. The land was natural once, as I pointed out. But now we want to grow grass and plant flowers in our own arrangements. We watch the grass grow, fertilize it, to enhance the growth. But then t gets too long, so we cut it. Then we water and fertilize it to make it grow so that we can cut it, and cut and cut it and so on. We also need a weed whacker to keep the edges tidy, but the watering and feeding and nurturing make it grow, so guess what we have to cut it.

Christmas

Every Christmas we put up a tree and decorations, only to take them down again about 14 days later.

We wrap presents so that the wrapping can be torn off and thrown away.

We celebrate New year with great hopes, ideas and resolutions and stay up to see the New Year in with great ceremony, only to revert back to normal a few days later.

We plan feasts and invite friends and family around to renew old friendships an sometimes enmities. We clean house and tidy up to start the new year afresh.

Food and weight

We eat to excess, then wonder why our pants have shrunk! We then diet and exercise to get our trousers to fit again. This allows us to eat to excess!

The fat people want to be thin and diet, so we have an industry spawned to feed this need. We go to “fat farms” to lose weight and pay a fortune for a detox and gourmet lettuce leaves and evian water. Not to mention being pummeled by a 200lb male (or female) gorilla an hours in th steam room.

The Thin people want to gain weight and eat Protein shakes and mass builders to achieve his aim. I have never heard of a “skinny farm”!

Other strange things we do

The pale people want to be dark and go to tanning studios for their tans and some try sun beds or even real sunshine to achieve their tans.

The Dark people buy potions and lotions to lighten their skins.

People with curly hair want it straight and people with straight hair want it curly. Then we won’t even talk about colour and tinting. Which is yet another huge industry.

Some people spend a lifetime growing long hair, while others simply shave all their hair off.

Women change their boobs, butts and faces.

Those who have big boobs and butts want them smaller. Those with small boobs and butts want them larger

Guess what? Men do too (not necessarily boobs but chest implants!).

We buy the latest clothing to be “in fashion” and next season we discard these barely worn clothes so that we can buy more “in fashion” stuff and at the end of the season we discard them again and so it goes.

Work and Leisure

We go to work to earn money and spend more and more time at work and less and less time at home and eventually stress and old age catch up with you. You never really had the benefit of the “money” and probably lost a wife or husband (that you loved once) and some children the process!

Some of us climb high mountains

Some of us run marathons

Some of us explore foreign countries

Some of us take road trips.

Then we have the “sculpt your body” syndrome. These are the Gyms with personal trainers. The ads say “Get that lean muscled look in only 14 days”!

We are also compulsive buyers of goods we don’t want or need. We watch those ad programs on TV and buy the “AB flattener” no more situps or crunches or the “wobbler machine” no boring jogging or cycling” or the “moon walker” tone your entire body while watching your favourite TV program.

The Cure

But help is is in sight. We have Hub pages to keep us sane, safely addicted, and close to group of great friends who we only know from hubs and comments and some interesting avatars.

Hurray for hub pages we don’t need to do the garden, go to Gym, gain or lose weight or even watch TV. Don’t tell anyone though; we might get taxed for it!

Comments

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sending

Author

Clive Fagan 6 years agofrom South Africa

das ist waar!

Karl 6 years ago

Johann Wolfgang Goethe 1749-1832

Ach, was soll der Mensch verlangen?

Ist es besser, ruhig bleiben?

Klammernd fest sich anzuhangen?

Ist es besser, sich zu treiben?

Soll er sich ein Häuschen bauen?

Soll er unter Zelten leben?

Soll er auf die Felsen trauen?

Selbst die festen Felsen beben.

Eines schickt sich nicht für alle!

Sehe jeder, wie er's treibe,

Sehe jeder, wo er bleibe,

Und wer steht, daß er nicht falle!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Toady We have the same problem here amazing sports cars on the road and our speed limits are way below the capacity of the cars. My son does building as a hobby and his house too is in a constant state of rebuilding. Dont come around I am remodelling .... (fill in the dots)!

Pest Nice to have you stop by and comment. I agree and our batteries don't even need to be recharged! We are certainly hypocrites and we dont know our own minds "I said ... but i meant ...., You should know that!

Nayberry How about Orange with green highlights.

BTW all thanks for stopping by and commenting. Much appreciated!

Nayberry 8 years agofrom nayphat@yahoo.com

Ah! Human nature at it's best! LOL. Great hub. Do you think I should dye my hair. I was think a bright orange would look really natural. LOL

Tootles!!

Pest 8 years agofrom A Couch, Lake Odessa, MI

Toad...I have the same question about womans...Why do they need to buy those sex toys when there are plenty of good...well men out there?

Sixty! Love this Hub! Hypocrites...we are all hypocrites. Selfish and indulgent.

goldentoad 8 years agofrom Free and running....

I just saw Real Tomato's comment and I know I am guilty of buying tools and things for the house and never using them. And every time i need some nails or screws, I buy a new box, even though I save all the unused ones and if I spent an extra five minutes looking, I might find what I am looking for, but it always remains a good excuse to leave the house. Everyone I know who works in construction has a house that looks like its in endless remodel, or shall i say unfinished remodel stage.

I've also wondered why here in America we buy the fastest of cars, yet we all have to drive at the same speed limit

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

You are so right and that is just another example of human strangeness. Thank for stopping by and commenting. Much appreciated

The Real Tomato 8 years ago

Buying clothes and shoes that sit in the closet until they are out of style is one of the most insane wastes of time and money...never understood it.

I know men who never fix anything around the house but never fail to run to the store when a great tool goes on sale. They just decorate the wall in their garage. Could we call that home-improvement-syndrome?

Another enjoyable read.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Thanks for your praise and support. Comments always add something to the hubs. Thanks for stopping by. Orange? Well yes we are all different indeed! LOL

Feline Prophet 8 years ago

Haha...we sure are a contrary species! Guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Oh but wait...I prefer orange! :P

Great hub sixtyorso!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Great video ey! Rednecks everywhere here is SA too, only we don't call them rednecks!

C. C. Riter 8 years ago

I forgot to mention the video, how wonderful to know rednecks are in Canada too!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

CCR absolutely. thanks for stopping by and commenting. As always much appreciated

C. C. Riter 8 years ago

And it's all driven by hormones, is it not? great hub SOS

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

London Girl suitably surrealy accepted. i love your tongue in cheek, off the wall humour! So long and thanks for the fish. See you at the Cafe at the end of the Universe for a cuppa!

LondonGirl 8 years agofrom London

I enjoyed your hub, and thought it demanded a suitably surreal answer.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

CW Thanks for stopping by and commenting. However this hub is not so much about complaining, but about people constantly seeking for something. Once they achieved it they want something else. The story you relate is well known and illustrates, somewhat harshly he realities of those who have as opposed to those who have not. This hub is the tale of human nature in all it's frail and fallible forms.

countrywomen 8 years agofrom Washington, USA

WOW!! I have never heard of chest implants for men. Those were some crazy things that you compiled. Yes we shouldn't commercialize some places so much that those places lose their natural charm. Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have. There is a story about a boy complaining he doesn't have shoes then he sees someone who doesn't have feet. We should be thankful for what we have and work for what we really need(for wants/desires there is no end for that). Good hub.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Francia I am so glad you appreciated this hub. i agree the list is endless. In summer we long for the crisp days of winter. in winter we are freezing and can't wait for summer!

Thanks for stoppping by and enhancing this hub with your comments.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

London Girl Er Uhm okay!

Thanks for stoppiing by and commenting!

franciaonline 8 years agofrom Philippines

You''re right, sixtyorso, we humans are strange indeed. When it's hot we want rain; When it's raining, we want the sun. Single people are in a hurry to marry and then are in a hurry to divorce. People at work complain a lot but complain a lot too when they have no work....and the list is endless. Thanks for this insightful and funny hub!

LondonGirl 8 years agofrom London

Q. "Why are human beings so contrary and strange?".

A. Fish

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Hi Marisue I have sort done that semi rant thing in my hubmob contribution. Let me know what you think (if you have time).

marisuewrites 8 years agofrom USA

will do!! look out world...

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Marisue Chin up and everything will go up! Just look on the bright side and lighten your load by writing a hub to get it off your chest. A good rant can be good for the soul!

marisuewrites 8 years agofrom USA

Oh yes, I know that song....can hear it now...was often sung on Lawrence Welk...

ewww did that age me or what...?

always love your hubs, sixtyorso...they lighten my day, which of late has not been so hot!! =)) but one thing I know...it's gonna change. but, which way? up, or down? sigh. I know not.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Chris aren't we though! Even a simple thing like half a glass of beer. some say it is half empty, others say it is half full. Others even say it is nearly empty!

You mean on one of them Forums? The closest one is Religion - but I don't wanna go there? LOL

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Chris you are probably right but this certainly opens the door for an interesting Philosophical discussion or hub!

Cris A 8 years agofrom Manila, Philippines

Really? I did? Now on to writing that book! LOL

Seriously, I believe that we just don't simply die when we say, okay I'm satisfied. It's more of banishing fears of dying. Sometimes the fear of dying is what fuels our drive to do more and be more. :D

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Chris Maybe you have just solved the riddle of life! I guess that when we reach nirvana and are satisfied, we simply die?

thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Cris A 8 years agofrom Manila, Philippines

The search for what will make us satisfied is a vicious cycle indeed. But that's what makes life's exciting - as in a romance novel, the pursuit is always the one that keeps as glued and not the happily ever after! So we move on to the next book and on and on. Otherwise, we'll read no more. I think the same goes with our lives, once we get more, we want more :D

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Hi Marisue Thanks once again for your wonderful and insightful comments. You always add immeasureably to my hubs with your pertinent comments. Thanks as always for your generous support.

Your comments bring to mind that song, I forget it's title but some of lines are:

"You say potaato, I say potato,

You say Tomaato I say tomato... etc"

Husbands and wives arguing: You say black he says white and so the world goes on!

marisuewrites 8 years agofrom USA

Humans seem to always want and crave and design one thing: CHANGE.

Some people can't have only one mate or lover, variety is their spice of life. Everything is in motion, and humans either attempt to stop it, rewind it, re-arrange it, or otherwise interfere with it. Give me the remote, and I'm constantly switching channels. It's the idea of "what am I missing?" I want it all. =))

That is not necessarily bad, except when we don't learn from our mistakes. Change is inevitable, and I for one, have often found out that what I wanted was what I had in the first place. Like the full moon of the last few nights, ooo la la! But, it didn't stick around, revolution being what it is.

Change is not always bad, though. Some change is good and necessary: Changing a flat tire, the oil in the car, changing our underwear, our shoes, our frowns, our worries, our friends even, or bad habits.

We just can't figure it all out at the same time. One thing I've figured out...I don't want you to change, sixtyorso!! You are just great the way you are....

did I say this is a great hub? don't change a thing!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Amanda you have evoked so many memories. Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton being toyal oppostes. Long hair for men (shaved hair now!) Paisley shirts. George Harrison mustaches. bell bottoms folowing stove pipes! The fashion today of tattoos which was considered totally unacceptable 20 or 30 years ago. Only sailors, gangsters and Bikers had them then!

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Lifebydesign So true - Yes we do need to be able to laugh at ourselves!

Thanks for your comments. Thanks too for stopping by and commenting.

Amanda Severn 8 years agofrom UK

Hi Sixty,

It all comes down to the fact that we humans are by-and-large a herd species. We do the same things as everyone else in our perceived crowd because we want the comfort of fitting in. We don't rationalise this behaviour, it's mostly just monkey see, monkey do! It's only in hindsight that we look back and wonder why we staggered around in platform shoes in the 70s or froze our butts in hot pants even when we patently didn't have the legs for it. Do you remember the guy perms of the early 80s? Inspired by Kevin Keegan I think. People love fashion in all shapes and forms. And then there's the anti-fashion crowd that use their contrary streak to be as different as possible. It's hard to be original these days!

Lifebydesign 8 years agofrom Australia

lol- great hub, and so true - as everyone said! We recognise it and we know it of ourselves. To be able to laugh at ourselves is a great perspective. thanks for bringing it home sixty!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Hi Sweetie Pie. You are so right and there are so many examples of human contrariness. I guess this why we have wars because we choose to disagree. We even have classes in our schools and Colleges that teach us to argue and disagree, namely debating. Even the law system is based on polemic or argument!

Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. I was not on hub pages over the weekend.

SweetiePie 8 years agofrom Southern California, USA

It is true, humans are very contrary. I had a friend with naturally curly hair that looked as if she had spent time curling it, but she was obsessed with straightening her hair. I actually like to curl my hair from time to time. Another thing I find contradictory about humans is how women straighten their pretty curly hair just to add a different type of curl at the bottom. In real life people do not have stick straight hair that only curls at the bottom, and I think curly hair is pretty. Of course people with curly hair think straight hair is nice. Boy, we will never win!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Hi Misty so true! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. much appreciated

Cindy Lawson 8 years agofrom Guernsey (Channel Islands)

Great Hub Sixty, and so very true. Short people want to be taller, tall people want to be shorter.

Dogs are the same, a small dog always thinks/wants to be a birg dog, but a big dog like a German Shepherd or a Rottweiler will still try to be a small dog and clamber on to you lap or bed whenever possible.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Hi Ag Your comments allow me to rest my case! I definitely did not indulge over new year and as a result did not have to say "I should have drunk more last night so that i would not be so thirsty this morning!"

In fact we had a quiet Braai (barbie in your lingo) and got home on the stroke of midnight in a ferocious summer thunderstorm. Fireworks provided by nature in the form of continuous sheet lightening! the likes of which i have never seem before.

I checked out the video and it works fine for me perhaps you just need to download again?

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Much appreciated.

BTW what did you think of the cricket? I had very littelr sleep getting up at 1am to watch all the days of the three matches.

Peter 8 years agofrom Australia

Hi sixty you are making some great points here!

something to do with keeping up with the Jones's?

Personally I am a creature of habit and could not care less what other people have, and as for climbing a mountain because its there, bah humbug.

Although I must admit to watering the grass to make it grow so that I could cut it so I could water it again so it would grow etc. etc.

btw mate the video would not work will you check it out?

All the best for the New Year, as someone up there said, I hope you did not spend it with your head in the toilet.

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Para Yes you are correct in general we keep changing our minds and therefore our goals and asperations. we like "what's in". Hence fashion, changes in shapes and styles for car, hairstyles, housing styles, mansions, cottages, bungaloes, town houses, terraced apartments, urban renewal and so on.

Some of us prefer stability and status quo but we are obviously not the norm.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. always much appreciated.

Dave McClure 8 years agofrom Kyle, Scotland

The trouble is, we are change detectors. When something stays the same, we don't notice it. A bit like the way frogs and toads catch their food...

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Elena exactly the point! Humans are truly strange. We also disagree violently then agree to disagree. How strange agreeing to disagree. we say "I'll never speak to that person again" at least until tomrrow. You love someone but a short while later you hate that person. Perhaps that is why phsychiatrists exist!

Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. Your comments are much appreciated!

Elena. 8 years agofrom Madrid

Hi sixtyorso! I have one silly thing similar to Pam's diet coke -- when people buy a latte and huge chocolate muffin for breakfast and then add artificial sweetener to the latte --seems like a moot point to me, but oh well to each their own! :-)

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Constant You like me are a wandering Id in a fairyland of make believe. Perception is reality and reality rarely becomes perception. We contort statistics to prove a point. I don't recall who said "Statistics, statistics and damn lies"

CW I must be honest I kind of expected Google to go that route. It is kind of predictable. And yes kind of stupid

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Pam you are so right! it is also like eating scraps or forbidden food in the kitchen but eating modestly at the table fooling yourself and everyone else and wondering why you gain weight when you are sticking rigidly to the diet!

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

Just_Rodney I kind of had those ideas of yours in the back of my mind but you brought them to the fore. Thanks for your comments. Welcome as always.

G-ma you are absolutely right. We can"t wait to go to school. then to get out and work and then wish we were back at school. Then we wish we were old enought to... Then young enough to (snowboard, ski, parachute )... To get married have kids then sorry we did n't stay single longer!

Princessa yes We swear never to drink again but we do! we hate hangovers but cause them with gay abandon. We wake up with a stranger and sneak off into the morining! Yes we are contrary. we would rather bite our arm off than move it and wake the stranger (also known as Coyote syndrome).

Sprite Yes you are so right. I am bored with this job I need another. Then we change are are sorry. Perhaps nostalgia exists because we are so contrary. We lng for something we never had or miss someone we don't know!

Hugs to you too!

Constant Walker 8 years agofrom Springfield, Oregon

I've been searching for the answer to the title of this hub for as long as I can remember. I have my theories, but I don't want to sound like an ass-hole.

Could I add to this hub? Good God, don't get me started! But, I'm sure something will hit me pretty soon... it always does.

(I love it that Google put a tanning ad up. Can that count as "stupid"?)

Pam Roberson 8 years agofrom Virginia

Very good hub Sixty! Many good points. I suppose my favorite strange behavior is when someone orders 2 double cheeseburgers, fries, dessert, and then ends it all with a diet coke. Why bother at that point? Does the artificial sugar/chemicals counteract the effects of all that other stuff? lol! ;)

spryte 8 years agofrom Arizona, USA

My personal favorite...when we are young we wish to be older. And when we are old...we wish we were younger. LOL!

I guess it's just our nature to be dissatisfied with whatever we have and wish we had something else. The grass is always greener, blah, blah, blah...even though it really isn't.

Hugs to you!

Wendy Iturrizaga 8 years agofrom France

Funny how we celebrate the new year with so much hope and happiness to end up spending the first day of the year lying down in bed -if you are not unlucky enough to spend the first day of the year with your head down the toilet- with a hangover that lasts for two days @_@

Happy new year :)

Merle Ann Johnson 8 years agofrom NW in the land of the Free

It is always good to want to improve ourselves...seems we got caught up in laziness...thoughtlessness, commericals,,dishonesty,money rules,&quot;the more you make the more they take&quot; awww I could go on but why? you have covered it well and only each one of us can change ourselves according to our beliefs...so I Pray we aren't too late...G-Ma :o) Hugs &amp; Peace

Rodney Fagan 8 years agofrom Johannesberg South Africa, The Gold Mine City

Ah Sixty, I am sure that this constant search for Utopian ideology has kept us dreaming and stretching ourselves beyond realism and reality! Is it not that heady elixer that makes us what we are.

Civilised man.

I recall a song by Peter Paul and Mary, I think, titled Little Boxes.

"little boxes on the hillside

All made out of ticky tacky

little boxes all the same"

'

Then there was another song by Jeremy Taylor, banned in South Africa of course, excerpt of the chorus I believe

"Tell me Tell me Why. I wanna know the fact,

Why all the White people want to go Black

And the Black people want to go white!

I suppose it is becouse we can, with thanks to scientific achievements.

It all boils down to that philosophical statement made by that seer Yendor

We are not really happy with ourselves - AS WE ARE.

Are we?

Author

Clive Fagan 8 years agofrom South Africa

anjalichugh I am sure that is true. But here is a funny upside to this if only "we could have the gift to see ourselves as others see us"

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Much appreciated!

anjalichugh 8 years agofrom New York

I believe 'nothing is good enough' for us. We keep trying to search for happiness in all possible ways only to end up being unhappy and dissatisfied.